VOLUME 23
MARCH 2009 Copyright 2009 by the American Chemical Society
Editorial Ninth International Conference on Petroleum Phase Behavior and Fouling This special section of Energy & Fuels contains selected papers from the 9th International Conference on Petroleum Phase Behavior and Fouling that met on June 15-19, 2008, on the scenic harbor of Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada. This petrophase conference has been meeting since 1999 in such locations as Houston, Copenhagen, New Orleans, Trondheim, Banff, Amsterdam, Asheville, and Pau. Not only has this conference become the premier event for discussing petroleum phase behavior but for revealing the latest understanding of the molecular structures and physical interactions of the larger molecules in petroleum. The complexity and wide diversity of these larger molecules lead to uncertainty that stimulates vigorous scientific discussion of a multiplicity of views. Special events during the petrophase conference promote interactions and provide new prospective. In Victoria, the special events were whale watching, tea at the Empress, and dinner at the Royal British Columbia Museum. This 2008 petrophase conference attracted 180 scientists and engineers from 18 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and United States. Of these, 72 delegates came from 34 universities, 41 came from 11 petroleum companies, 64 came from 19 service companies, and 3 came from 1 government laboratory. The technical program included 60 poster presentations in 2 sessions and 39 oral presentations in 5 sessions: Thermodynamics and Rheology of Petroleum Fluids, Asphaltenes, Emulsions, Flow Assurance, and Upgrading
and Refining. The keynote addresses for the oral sessions were given by Walter Chapman, Alan Marshall, Jan Czarnecki, Lloyd Brown, and John Shaw. Solids, such as wax and asphaltenes, are in solution and/or dispersion in petroleum but have a tendency to precipitate with changes in temperature and in the pressure or upon mixing with other petroleum streams. These solid phases can impede or block flow during petroleum production and transport while insulating surfaces from heat transfer during petroleum upgrading and refining. In addition, the formation of stable water-petroleum emulsions can prevent sharp separation of oil and water. Therefore, the objective of the petrophase conferences are to provide a forum for those devoted to develop sufficient understanding to enable the prediction of when these process problems occur, so that mitigation methods might be devised. Thanks to the Conference Chair, Moin Muhammad, and to the Technical Chair, John Ratulowski, for their hard work in making the conference a success. We are grateful to the sponsors of the Conference: Nalco, Schlumberger, Shell, Petrobras, Baker Hughes, ExxonMobil, and IFP. Special appreciation goes to the Session Co-chairs: Shawn Taylor, Peter Seidl, Jean-Francois Argiller, John Nighswander, Duy Nguyen, Eric Sirota, Steve Allenson, George Hirasaki, Jan Beetge, Jeff Creek, David Jennings, Frans van den Berg, and Paul Watkinson. Especially, we thank the authors whose papers form this special section. The next conference, the Tenth International Conference on Petroleum Phase Behavior and Fouling, is scheduled to be held on June 14-19, 2009, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Irwin Wiehe Soluble Solutions, Conference Co-chair EF801025P
10.1021/ef801025p CCC: $40.75 2009 American Chemical Society Published on Web 03/19/2009
